Heathside Cottage For Sale, 416 Catoma St., Fineview (SOLD)

August 13, 2008 1:57 am

Offered by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation

SOLD

Judith Harvey, a member of Landmarks and the librarian of the Frank B. Fairbanks Rail-Related Archive, has donated her remaining life interest in Heathside Cottage to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

Built in the mid-nineteenth century by bridge engineer James Andrews in what is now the Fineview Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the early Victorian brick cottage located at 416 Catoma Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is protected by a Landmarks preservation easement. Heathside Cottage is a model of Early Victorian design, with delicate bargeboard, a steeply-pitched roof, and diamond-paned sash windows, and has been renovated for modern living. It’s adjacent to an urban garden, looks out over the City, and is less than ten-minutes from downtown Pittsburgh.

“Judith spent 15 years restoring this historic treasure,” said Landarks President Arthur Ziegler. “Now we will do our best to find an owner who shares her enthusiasm for the uniqueness of this property.”

Persons interested in learning more about purchasing Heathside Cottage should contact Jack Miller at 412-471-5808, ext. 538 or jack@phlf.org

Proceeds from the sale of the property will endow Heathside Cottage’s preservation easement and support Landmarks’ mission.

“This kind of outright Gothic Revival is rare in Allegheny County today, and its quite rare to find it with its vergeboard and other sawn-out wooden trim still present and diamond-paned sash still in the windows. This is an EarlyVictorian design in spirit rather than a Mid-Victorian one, emphasizing delicacy rather than dignified massiveness, and is very much a borrowing from English Romanticism. The very word “heath” –an open area with wild shrubbery–is English, not American. it suggest the Romantic seclusion this house originally had, looking southward over the growing City of Allegheny from a vantage point 400 feet up”.